Chile or Argentina 2014
Hey guys!
I am thinking of heading to argentina or chile this year. Anyone have any idea what snowboarding is like over there? Any feedback on the resort? Is anyone heading that way? Thinking of going by myself or dragging some friends from elsewhere anyone keen to shred there?
Hey guys!
I am thinking of heading to argentina or chile this year. Anyone have any idea what snowboarding is like over there? Any feedback on the resort? Is anyone heading that way? Thinking of going by myself or dragging some friends from elsewhere anyone keen to shred there?
I’m incredibly keen and got to the point of looking into it but unfortunately it got derailed pretty quickly.
I can only really travel during the school holidays which for a SH winter is early July. From all reports it just looked way too sketchy that early in the season to commit. Mid August seemed to be the goer but even then it could go either way (if you haven’t already watch the art of flight series they have some serious snow issues in that area)
Having said that I would love to experience the food/culture/scenery and huge mountains but with the expensive/long flights and limited time frame it didn’t add up for me at this stage.
Would love to hear more reports from people that have been there though as it’s still on my bucket list.
I have yet to go, bet when I was lookin into it, I was drawn to Baraloche for some reason!!!!!
Looked like a good intro to Sth American Snow to me!!!!!
Pretty sure Tobi hada stint only last year, so she’ll be a great source of info!!!!!
Maybe send her a PM if she doesn’t reply here?????
My brother rode in Chile. Said it was awesome…
OK I’m back from Japan and as promised providing info.
We did two weeks in South America last year in July.
Basics;
Flights - I flew with Qantas to Santiago, Chile. Flights were about $1,600 return on sale. They quite often have sale fares on so keep an eye on them. Normally flights are anywhere from $2,300 - 2,600 so it’s rather $$$ straight up.
Our Trip;
We spent a week at Las Lenas in Argentina. http://www.laslenas.com/eng_summer/ We stayed at Hotel Piscis which is one of the big hotels in the resort. Accommodation options were limited to either one of the big hotels or a self serving apartment. As there really isn’t much more to the place than the ski hill (like 2 bars, 2 restaurants and a very small supermarket) we decided to go with one of the hotels. Our package included our accommodation, meals & lift tickets for the full week. It wasn’t cheap though and all the hotels only do week long bookings arriving Saturday leaving Saturday, information that would have been useful before we booked our flights.
The hill was good, a little small after a full week though. It has access to some amazing backcountry if that’s your thing.
From Las Lenas we took a break from riding & spent a couple of days in Mendoza which is wine country. They have ~100,000 people and over 1,200 wineries!!! It was a cute little town and we did a great wine tour while there.
From Mendoza we flew back to Santiago.
We spent a couple of days in Santiago and went riding at Valle Nevado one of those days. Valle Nevado was super cool. I had a great day riding there. http://www.vallenevado.com/en/
The next morning we had a driver pick us up and drive us down to Portillo. It was a cute little hill again with some access to some fairly intense terrain. http://www.skiportillo.com/?lang=en
From there we headed to a little town, not too far away, stayed the night there and then the next morning headed out to Ski Arpa which is a private hill accessed only via snow cat. http://www.skiarpa.com. This was probably our best day of the trip but really who wouldn’t say that we you’ve got your own private hill for the day!
All in all, the trip was good but it wasn’t a cheap experience. The snow there can be like much of the rest of the southern hemisphere. It only snowed once the whole 2 weeks which was our last day when it dumped like 45cms over the region.
Sorry if this post is a little vague I’ve only just walked in the door a couple of hours ago. Tired. Let me know if you’ve got any more questions.
After seeing this posted on PowderHounds, i think i may add this to my list of places i want to board;
Portillo
Yeah it’s a pretty nice spot. However it’s a very small hill.
The abundant spa’s in my photo would make up for that!
I’m not sure the woman in the bikini is pool side everyday though Deano!
They will flock when i arrive…
